The Art of the Fast Pass & Child Swap

It never ceases to amaze me how some people who have been to Disney multiple times still don't know how to properly "work" the Fast Pass system.  For those of you who are pros, skip this post.  Or better yet, read it and add any additional information/tips to the comments section!

There are two lines for (most) attractions.  (This does not apply to smaller, less popular attractions.)  There’s the regular line called the Stand-By Line.  There is a time wait posted outside the ride that tells you how long the wait is for the ride.   Then there is a short cut line called the Fast Pass line.  You must have a special “ticket” to get inside this line that basically has no wait.  These people get to jump in front of all the Stand-by people.  This line is reserved for people with physical handicaps (they have a special ticket…that a friend of mine calls the "golden ticket"- if you have someone with a mental or physical handicap travelling with you, ask your Disney Travel Agent about this), child swap passes (will explain this hidden treasure later), and people with Fast Pass tickets.  You receive a Fast Pass ticket simply by scanning your park ticket at the kiosk in front of the attraction.  Completely free to everyone in the park, unlike the Flash Passes at Six Flags that you have to pay for!

Each attraction has a certain number of Fast Pass tickets that are given out each day.I don’t know the exact # so I’ll make it up so you can get the idea.Expedition Everest (shown in the picture below) is a very fun rollercoaster in Animal Kingdom.They give out a total of 200 Fastpass tickets each day for this ride and the tickets have time increments of every 15 minutes.Once those 200 tickets are gone, no others will be given out for the day.You can get multiple Fastpass tickets for the same ride (if you want to ride it more than once), as long as you are eligible.Clear as mud?I’ll explain a little further with a diagram of the ticket.

Any Stand-By time of 30 minutes and under is pretty good.  It kind of works like restaurant wait times ~ if they say 20 minutes, it’s probably only 15 minutes.  Because it’s Disney, the wait in line is almost always interesting.  There’s usually plenty to look at, read about, etc. so don’t be afraid of a 20-30 minute wait.  If you ever see a 5 minute wait time ~ RIDE IT!  That’s pretty much walking right on the ride.  If you get to a park right when it opens, you will be able to hit SEVERAL rides and just walk right on them.  That’s the BEST way to do it!  I have to mention this: Toy Story Mania in Disney Hollywood Studios is the MOST popular ride of all parks.  The wait time as the park opens…before people can even reach the line…is 50 minutes.  Seriously, they don’t EVER set the time lower than 50 minutes (according to the attendant at the line) so keep that in mind when you are debating this ride.  I give my thoughts on how to ride this attraction in the Disney Hollywood Studios section.  Btw ~ there’s a REASON it’s the most popular…it’s AWESOME!!

Mastering the art of the Fast Pass will help you experience the things you want as many times as you want to!  Also, don’t ever throw away a Fastpass.  If you aren’t going to get to use it, just give it away to another park-goer.  You’ll make their day.  Seriously, I loved doing that for people!

Another way to by-pass long lines is to use the Single Rider line.  This isn’t offered on a lot of rides, but where it IS offered, it can be shorter than the Fastpass line sometimes!  If you aren’t eligible to get a Fastpass, this can be a great way to ride quickly.  Sometimes you can manage to sit right in front of the people in your group so it still feels like you’re riding together!  I like to use this option when we want to ride something multiple times.

Fast passes are great, but there are a lot of restrictions put on them ~ like how many you’re allowed to get, what time you can use them, limited supply handed out, etc.  And I still recommend you use them when it fits your schedule (i.e. you qualify for one and the return time is acceptable.)  But THIS is a hidden gem that many people don’t know about or don’t know how to utilize properly…the Child Swap, aka Rider Switch Pass.  (I’m old-school so I still call it the Child Swap Pass.)

Back in the day, Disney had a Child Swap rule.  If you had a child with you who wasn’t tall enough to ride the attraction (or too scared), everyone would go through the line together.  At the point where you would load the ride, one adult would stay with the small child while the rest of the group went on.  When they returned, another adult would swap spots waiting with the small child and everyone would ride again.  Get it?  Mom could stay behind with Child #3 while Dad rode with child #1 and #2.  When their ride was over, Dad and mom would change spots, allowing child #1 and #2 to ride twice ~ once with Mom and once with Dad.

They have since changed it to incorporate the Rider Switch Pass.  How it works: entire party goes to the entrance of the ride where the attendant is and tells them you need a Rider Swap Pass.  They’ll give the pass to the adult who is waiting, while the rest of your party enters the attraction.  You wait outside with the small or scared child(ren).  When your party returns, you and two other guests can go on the attraction.  (When we went in 2009, I THOUGHT it allowed 4 people to ride with a child swap pass, but now it only allows 3.  Maybe I’m remembering wrong, but regardless it’s only 3 at a time.)

  The great part?  This pass allows the second group (the person who waited outside) to go through the Fastpass line without a Fastpass ticket!  And when you pair it up with actual Fastpasses, it’s AWESOME!  When we went in 2009, Andrew was only two years old.  There were lots of rides he couldn’t do.  So we learned to go to a busy attraction and get Fastpasses for it.  When the Fastpasses were eligible, we returned and got a Child Swap Pass.  Casey, Abigail & Aaron would go through the line using their Fastpasses that we got a few hours before while I waited with Andrew outside.  When they came out, I went through the Fast Pass line with Abigail and Aaron using the Child Swap ticket.  Awesome for the older kids because they got to ride everything twice if they wanted to without waiting in long lines.  This may seem like cheating, but it ISN’T.  This is fine with Disney.

But I have learned that some people have cheated the system using this pass.  They will collect Child Swap tickets without going through the line at all and once they have two tickets THEN they ride the attraction ~ going through the Fastpass line twice without using a Fastpass ticket at all.  Disney has caught onto this some from what I’ve heard and the attendants are watching a little closer to make sure people enter an actual line.  But there’s always someone who thinks like a cheater.  I’ve heard of some instances where an adult waits outside (like they are supposed to) and the first party gets in the Stand-By line because they didn't have a Fastpass (like they are supposed to).  But the adults made a “ticket exchange” and once past the attendant, the first party jumps the rope into the Fastpass line.  The adult who was waiting outside usually didn’t want to ride the attraction at all, so it allowed the group to cheat their way through the Fastpass line without a Fastpass. 

Cheating is not necessary if you know how to plan out your day!  When we followed the flow chart on which days are best to go to which park and know which rides are the attractions to go to first that was given to us, it went smoothly.  Seriously, this is gold!  And that is why I recommend a good Disney travel agent.  J